Within a Dream
by CatsbytheGreat
Summary: Inception AU. Nick Fury gathers his best extractors to neutralize Loki Laufeyson, who plans to gain dangerous information from SHIELD.


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Enjoy!

* * *

"You heard of inception?"

These are words that Tony Stark has never wanted to hear from Nick Fury, but nonetheless he hears them, and he's forced to respond, "Yes."

"I'm gonna need you to perform one."

They're in a meeting room at SHIELD, him and a few others whose job it is to infiltrate dreams. They're called extractors because that's what they do, extract information from a target's subconscious. Inception is a whole different animal.

Across from Tony, looking as if he'd rather be anywhere else, is Bruce Banner, SHIELD's resident chemist. Bruce makes sedatives that everyone in the business of sifting through others' dreams would die for. His blends are complex, and he isn't quite sure how Bruce managed to get into that sort of business in the first place, why he felt the need to make sedatives. He doesn't ask.

Natasha Romanov and Clint Barton sit together, Clint with an "oh hell no" expression on his face and Natasha expressionless. She's the forger, the one who can blend in perfectly in peoples' subconscious by pretending to be someone else. Clint is valuable in that he can shoot, and he never misses, which is useful when dream projections start to attack. And they do. Often.

Steve Rogers looks vaguely concerned. He's a leader type in the same way that Fury is a leader type, except he's nicer than Fury, but stern. He's like a soldier out of war. He's also the moral compass of the group, which Tony finds almost hilarious because extractors don't really have moral compasses.

Notably missing is Thor Odinson. Thor's usually good for intimidation—like Clint, he's awesome defense in a fight, even if his fighting sometimes goes beyond what is necessary.

Tony takes this all in, as the rest of the group does, before Steve asks, "On who?"

Fury passes out several folders; each group member gets one. Tony opens his and finds a personal file for a man named Loki Laufeyson. He's thin, pale, with long black hair and blue eyes, as far as Tony can tell from the picture. He looks clever. Tony's eyes skim over the paper and widen at a few details.

"He's Thor's brother?" Steve asks, at the same time as Clint says, "That's the bastard who tried to get in my head!"

Everyone looks at Clint. Everyone remembers the time that Clint had been kidnapped, and when he came to he told SHIELD that someone had tried to extract information—personal information—about SHIELD's agents that could compromise them. Clint hadn't told anyone except Fury and Natasha who'd done it, but now they all knew who it was, and the case immediately changed in Tony's mind. This wasn't just a job. It was revenge.

He could tell by the way Clint glared at Fury. "He almost compromised all of us," he says. "What do you want? Reverse extraction? He's trained as fuck. He was in my head."

"And you prevented him from extracting information," Fury points out. "This team, right here, is made up of the best in the industry. And I don't want my team compromised. Loki's been trying to gain information on various agents, and we fear that he'll try an extraction on someone who is less well trained. That's where you come in."

"With inception," Tony says, skeptical.

"That's why Thor's not here," Natasha adds. "You don't want him to stop us."

"Isn't inception not…right?" Steve asks. "It's messing with someone's head, putting something there and having them none the wiser that someone did that. It could change a person."

"That's what we want," Fury tells him, looking grim. "I want to plant an idea inside his head that will stop him extracting, that will stop him going into others' heads altogether."

"What idea is that?" Natasha asks.

Tony watches Fury, knows before he talks that he's going to say something that most people aren't going to agree with.

"I want you to make him question reality when he wakes up, to wonder whether reality is a dream and whether the dream is reality," Fury says.

"No." This from Steve, who looks around at the group, desperate for someone to agree with him. "It's wrong. That is…do you know what would come of that?"

"I don't make these decisions lightly," Fury snaps, "but Loki could very well threaten the lives of our agents, and this is a dangerous business to begin with. We're tasked with keeping people safe with the knowledge we get from those who would endanger our country, and I will not have Loki get away with murder because my best team morally objects to neutralizing him."

"I, personally, have no problem with neutralizing him," Clint murmurs.

"Neither do I," Natasha says. "My problem is how well he's trained. He's like us, maybe not as good as us, but good enough. His mind will be guarded. And we'll have to go deep. Really deep, to plant such an idea into his head."

"You have time," Fury says. "Not much. Two weeks is the most I'm willing to let pass before we take action, but there will be a lot of planning. And you're gonna need a damn good architect."

"So I'm guessing we've all agreed to this already," Steve says.

Tony isn't sure whether he agrees, but he's loyal to Clint, and even though he's also loyal to Thor this Loki sounds like kind of a dick. "I'm in."

"I suppose I'm in, too," Bruce says. "You won't be safer with anyone else's sedatives, at any rate."

"None of us are perfect architects," Natasha points out. "That was…Pepper."

Tony tries not to flinch at the mention of her name, tries not to look at anyone who might glance at him. Luckily Fury doesn't allow the silence to go on too long, saying, "I actually have just the woman for the job."

"Who?"

"You know Thor's girlfriend?"

"Jane Foster?" Tony asks. "The scientist Jane Foster."

"She's a genius, like you, Stark," Fury tells him, "and she's agreed. She knows she's the best person for the job, and she'll make your mission a bit easier."

"Well, that's taken care of," Clint says, clapping his hands together. "Lunch?" Steve gives him a disappointed look.

Tony decides to spend the rest of the day trying not to think about Pepper (again) while Steve looks up anything and everything about Loki that he can find, and Natasha studies Thor, and they all try to keep from their teammate that they're going after his brother.

Tony dreads the two weeks ahead.

That night the team retreats to Stark Tower, because yes, Tony does have his own tower because he works in technology when he isn't moonlighting as an extractor and as a result has a lot of money. The next morning he walks into the kitchen and plops down a bunch of papers.

"We've got a lot to work with," he says. "Loki's got all sorts of family issues—apparently he's adopted, and he incepted the idea of suicide into his biological father's head. Now that guy, Laufey, was a pretty powerful person in his own right and he did try to off himself but didn't succeed—instead he got counseling and figured out what had happened. We can use that. Get one of us to pretend to be Thor, tell Loki that Laufey's planning revenge and that we're the good guys, and—hello."

Tony notices a petite, brown-haired woman sitting next to Clint. She smiles at him. "I'm Jane Foster."

"Nice to meet you," Tony says, and then adds, "That was my plan, basically."

"Won't Loki recognize any of us?" Natasha asks.

"He's never met us," Tony says, "except Clint and that might be an advantage. Clint'll be familiar—we can use him. We can say he's working for Laufey."

"I wish," Clint says.

"So this involves telling Loki he's dreaming and that his mind's being invaded," Bruce says. "That's…always dangerous. And has a 50% chance of failure."

"Bruce, I can always count on you to be a glass-half-empty kinda guy, but the way I see it, we're good. Really fucking good. And I'm excellent at the art of persuasion."

The group stares at Tony.

Finally, Steve says, "We'll have to do a lot of research, finesse some details, but I think this should work."

Tony grins. If Steve thinks it'll work, then it's a plan.

Later, Tony invites Jane to share his dream world. He wants to test her, see if she's any good, and they end up walking down a stretch of sidewalk in a place that looks familiar, a bit like New York City. But not quite.

Jane constructions a maze within a skyscraper, a larger maze within the city, and leads Tony to a park that resembles Central Park but isn't, with just something a bit off. They head into the park and find it hard to exit into the city.

"Good," Tony says, because it is. Jane's good at thinking on the fly. Tony's projections are still milling about, though. A few look at them, but none really react. Jane is subtle. "You haven't gotten attacked yet. I like it."

Jane smiles at him. "I do have experience."

"And what do you do as your day job?"

"I research sleep and dreaming," Jane says. "It's a fascinating field."

Tony nods, and looks sideways at her. Jane is smart, passionate about what she does. He can see why Thor likes her. "The question is, why are you doing this? This is going to affect Thor's brother, and if he knew he wouldn't let us do it."

Jane's expression hardens for a few moments. The sky darkens, perhaps involuntarily, but now more projections are looking. "Loki's revenge plan would include bringing harm to Thor, and I don't want to risk that possibility. I love Thor. And I want him safe. He'll understand, eventually."

"Hopefully he'll never know."

Tony thinks they might be able to wake up soon, but he catches a glimpse of a familiar figure walking among the shadows of the trees. A black dress, a curtain of strawberry blonde hair. Heels.

"Jane," he says, stopping.

Jane looks at Tony, confused. "Everything okay?"

Before Tony can say anything, the figure from the trees emerges, swiftly striding towards Jane. There's barely any time to react—she pulls a gun and shoots Jane in the heart.

Tony's eyes fly open—Jane is gasping for air in the reclining chair next to his. "What the hell was that?" she cries.

"Pepper," Tony says, hoarsely. He notices that Bruce is in the room, watching them both.

"Pepper's showing up in your dreams?" he asks.

Tony doesn't answer. Jane stares at him. "You can't go into this mission if she's going to be there," she says, still breathless. "She'll ruin it if you can't control her—and considering what happened, I don't think you can."

"I have to go," Tony says. He bolts out of the room, but not before he hears Jane ask who Pepper is.

Bruce starts telling her, but Tony knows the story and heads straight for the bar, wishing he could forget.

Pepper was his first love and his last, his partner in crime. She kept everything organized in reality and built amazing dreamscapes in sleep and became part of the team. They were going to get married some day.

Pepper is dead.

And every day Tony tries to forget that, tries to forget the man who shot her because she helped with an extraction that brought down a business. Tony wished it was a dream but it hadn't been. Pepper hadn't gone into limbo. She hadn't woken up, gasping, like Jane did.

She's died.

And Tony hadn't protected her.

* * *

Days full of research, dream test-runs, and avoiding Thor at all costs followed. Not that it was hard; Fury had sent Thor on some missions with another team to get him out of the way, and Thor, ever trusting, was none the wiser that something was being hidden from him.

About a week in, two things happen. The first is that Tony is sitting in his workshop when Jane walks in, sits next to him, and says, "Are you sure you're okay with this?"

At first Tony's confused. Then he remembers her getting shot. "It'll be fine."

"For all our sakes, I hope so," Jane says. "You should at least warn them."

"They'll call everything off," Tony says. "I can't do that. We'll go with the mission as is."

"It's high risk. You know you're adding even more to that with Pepper."

Tony looks at her. "What choice do I have?" Certainly no choices that he wants to make.

Later, Fury gathers them to tell them about kidnapping Loki. "He'll be at the Marriot Marquis in Time Square for a dinner party. I suggest you make it quick, quiet, and leave no witnesses. And Barton? Remember that if you kill Loki, you're killing him in real life."

Clint rolls his eyes. Jane looks worried. "So we're doing this now?"

"Yes. We can't waste this opportunity."

Bruce looks at them. "I haven't really perfected the sedatives, yet," he points out. "There's a minor problem with, ah, if you die you end up in limbo rather than waking up."

"Oh, god," Jane breathes.

"It'll be fine," Tony says. "Now—who wants to go to a party?"

* * *

The party is full of people in suits and gowns, and Tony feels very much in place, if only because he's done this sort of thing before. Jane, by contrast, looks confused. Natasha and Clint have disappeared into the crowd, and Steve is chatting with a few other men by the bar.

"I found him," Natasha says into her earpiece.

"Follow him," Clint says. "I'll get him when he leaves the room."

And so they wait.

Tony drinks and checks out some of the women who are dressed fantastically, and he drinks some more. He's really not much for combat, that sort of stuff is better left to Clint and Natasha, but he still makes sure that he's not completely drunk, because chances are they'll need to move quickly.

"He's leaving, left entrance," Natasha says, and Tony heads in that general direction.

There's a corridor full of people beyond the doorway, and another corridor to the right less full of people. By the time Tony gets there (on Natasha's instruction) Loki is on the ground, with a dart sticking out of his shoulder.

"Nice," Tony says, walking over to Loki's prone body. He's tall, which will make him more difficult to carry.

"There's an exit this way," Natasha says, gesturing down the corridor. "Steve's going to meet us with Jane and the car."

"Yeah, this would be suspicious."

Meanwhile, Clint flexes his hands, dart gun already holstered. "Felt good," he says.

Together, they manage to lift the body and get it out to the car, where Steve awaits them.

The ride to the tower takes ten minutes, during which the team remains largely silent. Tony can tell that they're nervous; this mission is the hardest they've ever worked on—hell, the hardest he's ever worked on—and he knows that a few of them still aren't sold on the idea that incepting someone is morally right. But it's Loki, and Loki could cause them a lot of trouble otherwise.

They bring Loki up to the top floor, into a secured room specifically used for these kinds of things. Loki won't wake up there, but for their purposes this is a good place to be asleep, dead to the world. Tony has the machine that delivers their chemicals set up, has his AI, JARVIS, set to turn it off at the appropriate time, and to play music to let them know when their time is nearing an end. Aside from being an extractor, JARVIS is Tony Stark's greatest accomplishment.

They each sit in chairs, reclining. Bruce hooks them all up to IV's , and explains as he goes, "We'll be out for approximately nine hours. Just remember, no dying. Try to minimize time spent in the lower levels because, well, you really don't want to do that." Bruce settles into his own chair. "See you on the other side."

"JARVIS," Tony says.

The sedative flows into his brains and the room fades into inky blackness.

* * *

Level 1: New York City. Find Loki and rough him up by pretending to be thugs sent from Laufey. Use Natasha as Thor, also being roughed up. Get Loki unconscious, and go to sleep.

Tony comes to in a place that resembles Grand Central Station, people swarming around him. Jane's next to him; the others are missing but that's okay. "We have to get to the trains."

"Trains. Right." Tony looks around and someone crashes into him, hard. He catches fast movement from one of the exits—two men with guns, headed for them. "Hey, Jane, how freaked out would you be if I asked you to run."

"Why?" Jane looks in the direction of Tony's gaze. The two men are raising their guns. "Right, run!"

They turn and head towards the opposite end of the terminal, towards a sign that says Tracks F-H. Shouts follow them and the crowd all turns to look at them, but Tony and Jane run down a flight of stairs.

Tony tosses Jane a gun; she catches it. "You know how to use one of those?" he asks.

Jane yells back, "My assistant taught me how to use a Taser. That's the same thing, right?"

They round a corner and Tony gasps, "Sure, yeah." There's a bookshop up ahead, but it's huge for a train station bookshop. Even from the outside Tony can see that it's like a maze.

He doesn't even have to say anything; Jane starts running towards the shop and Tony matches her pace, wondering why he'd even felt surprised in the first place. Jane created this dreamscape. Of course she'd know where to go.

The bookshop is less crowded and they weave through the shelves of books in as erratic a pattern as possible. Tony heads through "Mystery" but Jane suddenly grabs his arm and yanks him to "Mythology." And Tony sees why; crouching close to the ground, eyes scanning the lower shelves, is Loki. He's still wearing a suit.

Jane slows her run to a brisk walk and Tony follows her. They never really discussed what to do or say when they found him, but Tony's always been one to improvise.

Loki looks up just as Jane reaches him and then stands and, well, he's tall, so both Jane and Tony find themselves a bit put off by this. Tony doesn't really feel comfortable around overly tall people.

"May I help you?" Loki asks, and he's got that same damned accent from a foreign country that might be England that Thor has.

Tony's brain shorts out for a moment, but then he remembers why he's there, and pulls out his gun. "You're coming with me."

"Are you really gonna shoot?"

Jane pulls out her gun as well. "We have something of yours."

Loki looks the picture of non-threatened, so Tony takes a chance by rushing forward and slamming Loki into the bookshelf behind him, placing the gun to his temple. Loki's eyes widen-in shock, or fear, Tony can't tell.

"You come with me," Tony repeats, "or you'll be dead."

Loki looks at him for a few moments, and Tony has the distinct feeling of someone being sized up. After a moment Loki nods, and Tony roughly takes him by the arm and has Jane walk ahead, because she knows the way out.

Eventually they exit from the other side of the store, not a word from Loki, which is good. They're being stared at, but they've lost their gun-toting projections for now, which is fantastic.

Until the sound of shots echo down the corridor.

Loki turns and Tony pulls on his arm, keeping him in place. Jane hesitates for a moment before they continue.

The corridor leads them to Track H, where a train sits next to a platform. Tony decides to head for the first carriage because that's what they agreed upon. He notices, idly, that the trains read, "Metro South: New Jersey Line" and the lines on the trains are green instead of their usual blue.

They finally reach the front, and Tony shoves Loki into the compartment. Jane aims her gun at him, and Tony presses a button that makes the doors hiss shut.

"Jane, check the other carriages," Tony says. Jane leaves, the door sliding shut. Tony and Loki are alone.

Tony refuses to take his eyes off Loki, but he can't help but flinch when he hears gunshots again. The urge to turn around is strong, but he forces himself not to. Which is good, because Loki doesn't take his eyes off him, either. It's almost like a staring contest that neither party wants to admit to.

"I don't believe I've met you before," Loki says after a moment. "Mr-?"

"John Smith."

"Liar."

"What made you think I would tell the truth?"

More gunshots. Loki smirks. "Those who are lack intelligence might have."

"I'm a fucking genius." Footsteps, now, getting closer.

"No," Loki says, "you are an extractor."

Tony's blood runs cold. He hadn't expected Loki to figure them out this early in the game. "What makes you say that?"

"I've had training," Loki says. "You could say I'm an extractor myself, though I specialize in a certain type of dream manipulation."

"That's why we're here," Tony tells him, spotting his opportunity.

Loki frowns. He leans forward, intrigued. "Why?"

"You attempted one such specialized manipulation on a certain Laufey, and he wants revenge."

Loki's expression twists into one of disgust. "You work for that monster?"

"I wouldn't call him a monster—"

"Would you not?" Loki stands, and steps close to Tony, and Tony holds up the gun but he really, really doesn't want to shoot because that would fuck up everything and it's way too early. "Do you know what Laufey is? He is a monster of a man, caught up in crimes, who cares little for anyone except for himself. He abandons those who would love him. He murders those who get in his way—"

"Drugs?" Tony asks. He feels pressed up against a wall and sincerely hopes that this is not the case.

Loki's smile is sharp and not at all happy. "Murders. He kills people for pay."

"A hit man. But what does that have to do with-?"

And before Tony can say "you" he hears a soft, feminine voice to his right murmur, "Tony."

He can't help it. He looks.

Pepper is in the conductor's cabin, her perfectly manicured hands lightly touching the equipment. They lock eyes for a moment, and then Pepper flips a switch.

The train lurches forward, catching Tony and Loki by surprise and they both loose footing for a moment. Tony looks back at the cabin and Pepper is gone.

"Fuck!"

Loki's still looking at the cabin, curious, but then he looks back at Tony and asks, "Problem?"

The door to the carriage slams open and Clint, face masked, darts in with his gun held aloft. "You!" He points to Loki. "I got a present for you." He grabs Loki and shoves him towards the second carriage, which is open. They both stumble through the doors, and Tony sits down again, alone.

He puts his head in his hands. The door opens again and Jane comes in, looking worried. "We weren't supposed to start the train until after we entered the next layer."

"Yeah, about that," Tony says, rubbing his head. "Change of plans."

Jane sits down opposite of him. "Yeah, well, now we have less time. We have to work fast. Especially because the others were being chased and knowing Loki's subconscious, we'll be dealing with a full-on train fight at some point."

"Not we," Tony reminds her. "Just the person staying behind."

Jane looks him over, notices how shaken he looks, and asks, "Was it Pepper?"

Tony looks away. Jane leans forward and hisses, "Tony, this is serious. If she's going to compromise our missions you need to warn the others because we can not screw this up. At. All."

Tony slams his hand into the seat. He's one second away from tearing through Jane verbally when the door opens and Clint comes through, dragging an unconscious Loki with him. Natasha follows, with Steve and Bruce close behind.

Tony realizes in that moment that they are a team, and Jane is right. That doesn't mean he's going to tell them. It just means that even though he can feel Jane's eyes burning a hole in his head, he will not yell at her. Instead he watches them lay Loki on the floor in a semi-comfortable position. Bruce preps his sedatives, and they all scramble to the ground, preparing.

"In five minutes this train is going to go over a cliff," Jane tells him. "Make sure no one stops the train. Make sure no one tries to kill us. They'll probably attack and try to get in. Just keep this carriage and the cabin clear."

"Got it," Bruce says. "And good luck."

They insert their IV's and Tony leans back so that he's staring at the neon lights on the ceiling, and the darkness flickering through the windows.

"Ready?" Bruce asks.

He receives a chorus of affirmatives, and then they're gone.

* * *

Level 2: Provided no one screws up Level 1, Steve is supposed to meet Loki in a bar and convince him that he needs protecting from Laufey's men. Natasha will be a "team mate" and the rest of them will emerge (save for Clint) as members who infiltrated Laufey's team and helped bring Loki over to the good guys.

Tony comes to sitting next to Natasha in a hotel lobby. He can see the bar from here, and he knows that Clint and Jane are upstairs in the hotel room they've set up. Steve approaches Loki and starts talking to him.

Tony looks at Natasha, who is herself this time, thankfully. He smiles at her and she doesn't smile back. Instead she says, "This will be the hard part. Everything else should be fairly easy."

"Yeah, as long as he doesn't freak the fuck out here, everything else will be a piece of cake." Tony watches Steve and Loki talk, and the projections in the bar all turn to look at them. There's a tense moment where Tony thinks he might have to pull out his gun and go all action-movie hero on that bar, but then the tension falls away and the crowd turns back to mind their own business.

Tony looks at Natasha and adds, "Did you know Laufey murders people for money?"

"Yes," Natasha says. "Clint and I actually know a fair bit about Laufey."

"Former spies, right." Tony sighs.

Natasha leans forward. "Hey, look at me." Tony looks, and she says, "Laufey is not a good person. Some might even say Loki was right to do what he tried to do. But Loki is also trying to do that to SHIELD, and to Thor, and to the family that raised him because of some sort of inferiority complex that he can't get over. He's dangerous."

"I know."

"Good." Natasha backs away. "I just don't want you to back out because you think Loki's in the right."

"To be fair, you might be a bit biased." Natasha glares at him and Tony adds, "Sorry! Forget I ever said that." He decides never to mention the Clint and Loki situation to her again.

They turn their attentions back to the bar, where Steve and Loki are standing. And then they start walking over.

"Act natural," Tony says, and Natasha nudges him hard in the ribs, and he most definitely does not wince.

Loki balks a bit at seeing Tony, but Steve reassures him, "He's clean. He and Jane Foster—you'll see her upstairs, infiltrated Laufey's team to get you here."

Loki still looks suspicious. Tony holds out a hand. "Tony Stark. Pleasure."

Loki shakes it. His hands are icy. Tony shivers.

Natasha introduces herself as Natalie Romanoff and Steve suggests they head upstairs.

The walk is strange, and a bit awkward. Tony can feel the suspicion rolling off Loki in waves. Even the projects are aware something is up. But Loki follows them anyway, and they ride the elevator in silence.

When they get out, Loki asks, "What happened to Thor?"

"He's still with you," Tony says, "above. Just, ah, yeah. He should be fine."

Loki glares at him. "I do not care if he's fine. I would rather him out of my sight when I wake."

Steve pushes one of the doors open and walks inside.

Jane has already set up everything they need to enter the next dream. Loki looks at the device like he wants to burn it. "Why must we go under again?"

"Laufey is looking to implant something deep into your mind," Steve explains. "We need to get there before he does to stop him."

"Well, his associates," Tony corrects.

Loki looks at them. "You are withholding something from me." He whips around to Tony. "You. You thought I was wrong about Laufey. You did not take me seriously."

"I did!" Tony holds his hands up in surrender. "I do!"

"You had fear in your eyes when you faced me," Loki snaps, taking a step towards him. "You believed me to be your enemy because I am your enemy. You are not here to protect me. Tell me the truth. You want something from me."

"Loki, we are doing this in your best interests," Steve tries, but Loki cuts him off.

"You are with SHIELD, are you not?"

That gets them to freeze. Tony finds himself thrust against the wall, Loki's cold hands around his throat as he repeats, "Are you not?"

No one answers.

Loki licks his lips. His hands tighten. "I see," he breathes. "SHIELD has sent their finest agents to pick my brain, because they see me as a threat. I have had SHIELD agents in my head before, and I have been in their heads, and I know what they feel like. I can tell how they operate, and the way you operate is familiar. Do not lie to me. You are not protecting me from Laufey and you are not working for him. You serve SHIELD and you serve Thor."

"Now hold on," Tony tries, but Loki's hands choke him off.

"Thor was afraid that I would seek revenge on him, and he is right. I would." There is a mad glint in Loki's over-bright eyes. Tony can't look away. He literally can't; Loki's hands are holding him in place. "You fancy yourselves heroes, but you are as covered in blood as the rest of us. You claim to be working for the good of your country, but you could not even begin to comprehend why I do what I do. And you don't care. You would rather remain ignorant—"

"All villains are heroes in their own mind," Steve points out.

Loki bares his teeth, still looking at Tony which is, frankly, uncomfortable. "Yes, they are," he murmurs. "Do you not see the irony in that? Would you ever truly know whether you play the hero or the villain?"

A flash of red, a shot and then Loki's hands loosen from Tony's throat. And he collapses, eyes wide.

Behind him, Pepper holds out a gun. "You were never good at taking action when action is required," she says.

Clint bursts out of the closet yelling, "What the fuck is going on?" and Steve is kneeling next to Tony and Natasha is staring and Jane has her hands over her mouth like she can't believe what just happened.

And for all that's going on, in that moment it's just Tony and Pepper. She's wearing white, and she looks beautiful. Tony remembers that white dress. He remembers it colored red with blood.

"What are you doing?"

"Saving you," Pepper says.

"I don't need saving. I need you to not interfere."

"You've always needed saving," Pepper says. "You'd be lost without me."

"I am lost without you!" Tony cries. He hates this. He always hates this. "You don't exist anymore. You're…you know."

"Dead," Pepper answers. She looks entirely undisturbed by this. "Yet here I am. Still alive. Still making things run smoothly for you."

"You're part of my subconscious," Tony says. "You aren't you."

"You could be here, too, you know." Pepper continues, almost oblivious to Tony's distress. "We'd be happy, I think."

"I can't."

"You never commit."

"Because I'm not dead, Pepper. I can't. I'm sorry."

To his shock, although he admits that perhaps he shouldn't be shocked, Pepper aims her gun at him. "This is what's best for you," she says, and shoots.

* * *

Tony wakes up with a mouthful of water that he coughs up, before sitting up and getting hit by another wave. He staggers to his feet, still coughing, and manages to stumble towards the huge looming city with crumbling buildings that look both modern and ancient.

Level 4: Limbo.

It doesn't matter that he skipped Level 3, because Level 3 was make Loki trust them enough so that he showed them his totem, so that they might have an idea of where it would be and what it would be and how it worked. They planned to use Thor.

But that had all gone to shit even before Pepper pulled the trigger, and now Tony finds himself stumbling from the nearly submerged wreck of a city into parts with actual roads and solid structures. Parts that look vaguely familiar.

It looks a bit like New York City gone wrong.

This takes Tony what feels like a few hours, though, and as he walks he can't help but notice the huge (gaping) hole in Pepper's plan: she seems to think that this is Tony's dream, but it isn't. This is Loki's dream. Pepper (Tony, really) can manipulate anything she wants but Loki has the most power here.

And it occurs to Tony that in the time between Loki being shot his own arrival, something must have happened.

Loki has been here awhile.

And, with a sickening sinking feeling, Tony realizes that he must also be here awhile. Because the dream won't end until they wake up.

He has years to find Loki. If he remembers.

* * *

Tony lives modestly. He gets himself a house that's actually a mansion, fully equipped with JARVIS and a lab where he can work on various robotic inventions. He can't really invent friends, and Pepper doesn't show up which is vaguely worrying, but it's okay. He expects her eventually.

He drinks and eats good food and searches the city for signs of life, because in theory the only people here are him and Loki, and it shouldn't be too hard to find the one other person in the dreamscape. But it is. So he waits.

And one day, when he's walking along an empty Times Square-esque place, palming his totem (a loaded dice) because he finds the need to remind himself over and over that this, relaxing as it is, isn't real and that he was actually meant to do something, he catches a glimpse of someone entering a house.

Then Tony realizes that a) this is the first house he's seen since he got here and b) he probably shouldn't announce his presence to the world.

So he creeps up to the house and peers through a window.

He sees Loki. It's a large house belonging to a wealthy family, empty and worn and dusty now. Loki opens a safe and looks at something inside. Tony finds himself glad he came to the house when he did, because he's which buttons Loki typed, even if he can't tell what was on them, and this gives him an advantage. Loki stands there for awhile and Tony ducks below the window ledge, and waits.

He hears Loki leave, sees him walk down one of the roads and waits until he's vanished from sight before jumping up and tugging on the front door to the house. The door is old and weak, and it opens easily and Tony steps inside.

The house has a huge foyer area, with a vaulted ceiling and a grant staircase leading to a second floor. There are rooms off to either side and a room at the end of a hallway ahead, where Tony can see the safe.

As he walks down the hallway, dust clouding his feet, he notices photographs on the wall at eye-level. A few of them are of the whole family, Loki's adoptive family. Loki, young and dark-haired and smiling, Thor, blond and tall and gangling, and their parents, the imposing Odin and the poised Frigga.

Later pictures of Loki are scarce, but there are plenty of Thor. It seems that Thor liked to be photographed in his youth, a trait that Tony knows is still true today. For a moment he feels like he is invading, that Thor should be here instead of him, or that he shouldn't be here at all. This is Loki's dream of his childhood home.

Then again, this is Loki's subconscious and Tony was never invited in, yet here he stands in the deepest parts of him, too deep to go back.

So he goes forward.

The safe sits on a dresser. Tony presses the buttons that he saw Loki press. Strangely, they are actually blank. Which is good. It means Loki wouldn't have any numbers or letters to give anyone if they tried to extract the information.

He opens the safe.

In the middle of the safe, pure black, is a spinning top. Perpetually spinning.

Tony understands. It would be impossible if this were not a dream, for the top to still be spinning from the time Loki left to the time Tony opened the safe.

Tony swallows. Remembers Loki talking about Laufey. Remembers Natasha telling him not to back out once they're in. He hopes that he's actually doing the right thing.

He reaches in and grasps the top, and lays it on its side, so that it rests perfectly still. Then he closes the safe.

He walks outside and through the streets, as far away from the house as he can. He gets himself lost, and hopes that there was no other possibility for Loki, no better way for them to eliminate him as a threat.

He wonders if SHIELD could have hired him.

He wonders why Thor never talked to him. If it would have helped.

He wonders why he, of all people, ended up doing the dirty work. He still feels guilty about not being able to stop Pepper's murder. He's not even mentally stable enough to handle permanently messing with some guy's mind.

Another part of him hopes it doesn't work. That Loki sees the deceit.

He doesn't even know how long Loki's been there, or how long he himself has been there. Forty days. Fifty?

And Pepper still hasn't shown up.

* * *

Days come and go, and one day Tony feels an earthquake.

He looks out the window of the high-rise building he's in. He's moved now, from house to apartment to mansion to another apartment to penthouse. It's hard not to get bored. Part of him wishes that Pepper would show up because he hates being alone.

He turns from the window, and she's there. Wearing red, which goes wonderfully with her fair skin and strawberry-blonde hair. She walks up to him. She's smiling.

"Where have you been?" Tony asks. His voice is hoarse. He hasn't spoken in ages. Not even to JARVIS.

"Letting you decide."

She looks patient. Pepper was always so patient. Tony appreciates the gesture. He palms his loaded dice. It still feels off. He's still dreaming, which is unfortunate.

Because Pepper was right. Sometimes he wants to stay here, in the dream and make it his reality, because she'll be there. But that isn't how life works. Not even how death works.

He thinks. He doesn't actually know. But if he thinks about not knowing for too long he'll go crazy.

Instead, he pulls out a gun. "I'm sorry," he says, and shoots.

The bullet hits Pepper in the chest and she falls, doesn't make a sound until she hits the floor and even then it's just a soft thud. Tony drops the gun and rushes to her, kneeling and taking her upper body in his arms, cradling her head.

She's barely awake.

"I'm doing this for you," Tony tells her. He's crying. A tear lands on Pepper's cheek. He hopes she doesn't mind. "You—the real you—would want me to live. Not be stuck in a dream. That's why. I hope…I love you. That's why."

Pepper smiles at him and her eyes slip shut. Tony stays there for awhile, holding her, crying. Her death all over again. The tears won't stop.

The building shakes.

Tony looks up, notices the sky turn darker. The shaking is more insistent, the building will crumble soon. He walks over to the window and catches his reflection for the first time—staring back at him is an old man with white hair and a white beard, tears running down his cheeks.

Tony presses a hand to the glass.

It shatters.

He looks down at the empty streets below. The building shakes harder.

He jumps. He falls.

He wakes up to chaos.

That's not quite right.

He is being shaken, though. Hard. He opens his eyes and sees Bruce hovering above him, worried.

"What happened?" he asks.

"You tell me," Bruce says. "Apparently you and Loki were shot by Pepper. Jane wanted to go after you two but we decided to wait. So Jane made up a Plan B of sorts, to shock you two when the kick came so you'd wake up and come out of the dream with the rest of us. Which you did, apparently. But it took you both longer than everyone else."

"Fuck."

"Yeah."

Tony notices the distinct lack of people in the room except Jane, who's sitting in another chair, watching him. He smiles at her.

"You had us worried sick," Jane snaps. "What happened?"

"Pepper killed us, got stuck in limbo for a bit, finished the mission anyway and got rid of Pepper, then jumped off a building and woke up. Where's Loki?"

"They took him back to his apartment," Jane tells him. She still looks worried but at least now it's tinged with relief.

"Job well done then," Tony says. "Now, I don't know about either of you, but I'm starving. And a drink would be nice, too."

Bruce helps him up and they head out, and over the course of the next few days Tony tries to forget his dream.

* * *

Good things never last. Even if Tony had managed to forget, a reminder pops up at one of his parties a month later. Everyone is there—SHIELD, Tony's own team (including Thor), outside friends and probably some people they don't know but who make good drinking buddies.

Tony steps out onto his top-floor balcony for some fresh air when he sees, out of the corner of his eye, someone step out next to him.

He turns to see Loki there.

"Um…hi?" Tony feels at a loss. "I don't believe we've met."

"I feel as if we have." Loki takes a sip of his drink, some sort of dark liquid. He turns to Tony. He looks more worn down, exhausted, and suddenly Tony wants to run away. Loki's eyes are too bright.

"We really haven't," Tony says, trying not to sound nervous.

Loki laughs. "Oh, but I met you once. That is why you are here. Did you know Stark Tower is the highest building in New York City?"

"I did, actually," Tony says. "I built it."

"Yes." Loki looks out now, at the rest of the city. "Fitting, perhaps. You like the attention." He turns. "This is where you're keeping me." It's sharp, and completely sure.

Tony blinks. "What?"

"You are keeping me here, while you try to extract what you can from my brain," Loki says. "But I've come to tell you that you won't succeed."

Tony's head is buzzing. He doesn't know what to do. "Why not?" he asks.

The silence breaks when someone calls out, "Loki?" Tony turns and sees Thor walking towards them.

He turns to Loki, who murmurs, "Watch," and turns towards the ledge. He climbs over the waist-high barrier.

"Loki!" Thor screams.

Loki falls. Or jumps. It doesn't matter.

Thor runs to the edge and looks down. He starts sobbing. Tony drops his glass of whiskey and it shatters by his feet, soaking his shoes.

Thor grabs him by his jacket and starts screaming "What did he tell you? Why did he do it? What did he say?" before hands drag him away and he becomes an incoherent mess.

Bruce ends up in Tony's field of vision, blocking his view of Jane trying to comfort Thor. "You okay?" he asks.

Tony licks his lips. "We were wrong, Bruce," he says.

"Let's get you inside."

Bruce leads him through the crowd of people, away from the party, into his room, where he lays Tony down on his large bed and prepares a syringe.

"What are you doing?" Tony asks. He can't move. His limbs feel too heavy, and it isn't from drugs or alcohol or fatigue.

"Helping you sleep," Bruce says. "You need to rest. Anyone would, after what happened."

"Sleep," Tony repeats, as if it is a novel idea.

"Yes."

"Will I have dreams?"

Bruce gives him a concerned look. "I don't think so."

Somehow Tony doesn't believe him. As he feels the needle slide under his skin and the sedative push into his vein, he thinks that even with his eyes closed he'll see Pepper get shot and Loki fall off that ledge. Over and over and over.

His eyes slip shut and he sleeps.


End file.
